National Advisory Group

Rebkha Atnafou (The After-School Institute)Rebkha Atnafou is the Executive Director of The After-School Institute (TASI). TASI works to strengthen the support system among after-school providers, families, teachers, and community organizations. They offer providers the training they need to meet quality standards established by the Baltimore After-School Strategy. Rebkha is responsible for overall management, establishing strategic linkages with local, state and national agencies, and directing the expansion and ensuring the sustainability of TASI.

Bob Cabeza (The YMCA of Greater Long Beach)Bob Cabeza is Vice President of Community Development at the YMCA of Greater Long Beach. Mr. Cabeza has a special focus on youth development and technology equity for underserved communities as it relates to developing both academic and workforce success. He is the founder of the Youth Institute, which has been replicated across the US and in several countries.

An-Me Chung (The Mozilla Foundation)An-Me Chung is Chief of Partnerships and Policy at the Mozilla Foundation, and responsible for developing the partnerships and policy agenda needed to support and grow the open badges ecosystem. Earlier in her career, she served as a program officer at the C.S. Mott Foundation from 2000- 2010 where she focused grantmaking on building systems to support young people with optimal opportunities for learning and enrichment beyond the traditional classroom.

Aaron Dworkin (President, National Network After-School All-Stars)As president of the National Network, Aaron works to ensure program quality, collaboration, growth and sustainability amongst the 19 ASAS chapters serving more than 75,000 low income, urban students across the U.S. He has recently overseen ASAS expansion to six new cities in three years. He opened ASAS Washington DC office and leads their government advocacy work. He also manages the national program and evaluation departments.

Karina Epperlein (Documentary Filmmaker, KarinaFilms)Karina Epperlein’s films have consistently looked into society’s dark corners, finding light and beauty, and addressing themes of justice, transformation and healing. Her award-winning documentary work of twenty-four years spans themes from women in prison (Voices from Inside (1996), the Armenian genocide, to dance and disability. Her short film Phoenix Dance (2006) screened in more than 120 festivals and theatres all over the world. It was “short-listed” for the 2006 Oscar Nomination for Short Documentary, and won numerous awards, including a Golden Gate Award from the San Francisco Int’l Film Festival. Finding the Gold Within(2014), her tenth film, follows six young Black men from Akron, Ohio, through the trials and triumphs of their first three years of college.

Andi Fletcher (The Center for Collaborative Solutions)Dr. Andi Fletcher is a nationally recognized leader in afterschool program and policy development. In addition to designing, directing and developing one of the most outstanding programs in the country, she initiated California’s first afterschool legislation, which has resulted in $550 million in funding for programs serving close to a million children and young people. Over 20,000 people have attended her workshops and keynote speeches at more than 150 conferences. Her books and articles are among the most widely used in the United States. They include A Guide to Developing Exemplary Practices in Afterschool Programs, Lessons in Leadership, Expand and Excel: Taking your Program to the Next Level, and Changing Lives, Saving Lives.

Ellen Gannett (National Institute on Out-of-School Time)Ellen S. Gannett is director of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. A national action/research project, NIOST has provided research, evaluation, technical assistance, consultation, and specialized training on afterschool programs throughout the United States for more than 35 years. Ms. Gannett ensures that research bridges the fields of child care, education, and youth development in order to promote programming that addresses the development of the whole child and the professional advancement of the field.

Robert Granger (Former President of the W.T. Grant Foundation)Robert Granger served as the president of the William T. Grant Foundation (WTGF) from 2003 until his retirement in September 2013. Before joining the WTGF in 2000 as senior vice president of program, Granger served as senior vice president of the MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor, and as executive vice president at Bank Street College of Education. Granger also chaired the National Board for Education Sciences. This presidentially appointed advisory panel of the Institute of Education Sciences in the United States Department of Education oversees federal activities regarding educational research.

Robert Halpern (Erikson Institute)Robert Halpern is chair of the Research Council at the Erikson Institute. His current research focuses on the evaluation of after-school programs for poor children and their families. He writes extensively on the history of human services. His books include The Means to Grow Up: Reinventing Apprenticeship as a Developmental Support in Adolescence; Making Play Work, The Promise of After-School Programs for Low-Income Children; Fragile Families, Fragile Solutions: A History of Supportive Services for Families in Poverty; and Rebuilding the Inner-City: A History of the Neighborhood Initiatives to Address Poverty in the United States.

Helen Janc Malone (Institute for Educational Leadership)Helen joined Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) in 2013 as the Director of Institutional Advancement and in 2014 also began directing IEL’s Education Policy Fellowship Program. Her areas of expertise include education policy and leadership, expanded learning, and systems-level change in the national and global contexts. She is the Chair of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Educational Change and Out-of-School Time Special Interest Groups, a Board Director for the PDK International Chapter of Harvard University, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Expanded Learning Opportunities, in addition to her posts as a peer reviewer for several academic journals focused on educational change, youth development, and school-community partnerships. She authored several publications, has given distinguished lectures domestically and abroad, and has appeared in mass media, including PBS, C-SPAN, Huffington Post, and has run two Education Week blogs.

Milbrey McLaughlin (John Gardner Center at Stanford University)Milbrey McLaughlin, Ed.D. is the David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy, Emerita, at Stanford University and the Founding Director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Communities. She also is Co‑Director of the Center for Research on the Context of Teaching. McLaughlin has focused throughout her career on the various institutional contexts and policies that shape youth outcomes—schools and community-based institutions most particularly. The Gardner Center embodies McLaughlin’s interest in identifying and understanding the cross-institutional issues that shape with settings within and through which youth move, and in advancing a youth sector stance to inform policy and practice.

Doug Murray (Skywalker Sound)Douglas Murray, is an experienced sound designer, sound editor and re-recording mixer, and he is now a central part of Skywalker Sound. Murray has worked on such films as Salute of the Jugger (1989), Contact (1997), Cloverfield (2008) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), apart from having been a crucial part of the pilot to Twin Peaks and the much maligned, yet aurally impressive, prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).

Pedro Noguera (University of California, Los Angeles)Pedro Noguera is Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences at UCLA. His research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, as well as by demographic trends in local, regional and global contexts. He is the author of eleven books and over 200 articles and monographs. He serves on the boards of numerous national and local organizations and appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA he served as a tenured professor and holder of endowed chairs at New York University (2003 – 2015) Harvard University (2000 – 2003) and the University of California, Berkeley (1990 – 2000).

Terry Peterson (Afterschool and Community Learning Network)Terry K. Peterson is director of the Afterschool and Community Learning Network. He also serves as a chairperson of the board of directors for the After School Alliance and is senior fellow for policy and partnerships at the College of Charleston. Dr. Peterson serves on the executive committee of the National Center for Summer Learning at John Hopkins University, the Council for Corporate and School Partnerships, and the Mayor of Charleston’s School Reform Committee. He is involved in international education efforts, most recently in Argentina, Mongolia, Brazil, Northern Ireland, South Korea, and Denmark. Dr. Peterson served as the chief education advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education for eight years. At the U.S. Department of Education, he helped develop nationwide education improvement strategies, such as Advanced Placement, E-Rate, 21st Century Community Learning Center, and teacher quality initiatives.

Jane Quinn (Children’s Aid Society)Jane Quinn joined The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) executive team in January of 2000 and currently serves as the Society’s Vice President and Director of National Center for Community Schools. On the national level, Quinn’s work focuses on advancing the community schools strategy as a preferred education reform approach. Ms. Quinn came to CAS from the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, where she served as Program Director from January 1993 to November 1999. Prior to that she directed a national study of youth organizations for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which resulted in the publication of a book entitled A Matter of Time: Risk and Opportunity in the Nonschool Hours.

Jen Rinehart (Afterschool Alliance)Jen Rinehart joined the Afterschool Alliance in September 2002 and established the Afterschool Alliance’s Washington, D.C., office. Jen takes a primary role in the Afterschool Alliance’s coalition building, policy and research efforts, and serves as a spokesperson for the organization. Jen oversees major initiatives including the Afterschool for All Challenge, an annual afterschool advocacy day, and America After 3PM, an ongoing study of how children in America spend their afterschool hours. Prior to joining the Afterschool Alliance, Jen served for more than five years on the staff of the Department of Education, primarily as a Project Officer for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.

Dawn Valadez (Documentary Filmmaker)Dawn Valadez, a mixed-race Chicana, has been creating art, causing mischief, and working for social justice since she was a teenager…many, many years ago. For over 30 years she has worked in the non-profit sector as a social worker, media maker, youth development specialist, trainer, public art creator, parent educator, resource wrangler, and fundraiser. Her award-winning feature documentary is Going On 13 which premiered at the Tribeca International Film Festival, screened at film festivals around the world, was broadcast on public television in the US, Europe, Asia, and is shown at community events, conferences, schools, and youth organizations. She co- authored the study guide that accompanies the film and facilitates youth and adult dialogues on the issues raised in the film.

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